Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

This ice cream is defined as ice cream by me even though it’s actually kind of secretly NOT ice cream. But I mean that in the best possible way, if there even is such a thing as non-ice cream being a best possible ice cream thing. You might not even realize that the non-ice cream is actually not real ice cream because the texture (even though it’s just frozen bananers) is just. like. ice cream. What is going on.

This whole yummy thing is just sweet, ripe frozen bananas that have been smoothed out in the blender and then laced with a little vanilla, a little cinnamon, and a good dollop of peanut butter creaminess. And this whole yummy thing is also my complete meal replacement plan for the next long time because peanut-butter-banana has control of my miiind.

As a general food lovers’ rule, I try to eat more of the foods that I really like. Namely dark chocolate, melty-cheesy Mexican food, pasta with so much extra sauce that you can’t even stand it, and Pad Thai slash curry.

But that being said, there’s one beloved food I’ve been trying to eat less of and its name is shugrrr. We talked about that when I started to be Granola-person by putting DATES (the brown wrinkled ones? yes) in my four-ingredient green smoothies. Oh my gosh, just typing that out is some kind of self realization scary. Things are start to get a lee-tle weird around here, says the normal half of my brain.

Recently my sister and Pinterest told me that this banana ice cream trick is a really good one, so today I’d like to report back on the results of this creamy banana dessert-ness.

Verdict is —> TWO THUMBS UP.

How in the heck does this even happen? I seriously cannot believe that bananas alone can create this creamification that rivals the beauty of ice cream. It is magic and fireworks and love at first *bite.* Had to.

I’m really into almond butter at the moment and during one of the millions of times that I’ve made this in the last few days I accidentally used almond butter instead of peanut butter. Mmk now. Being a major fan of almond butter, I feel very confident speaking the truth in love: this recipe is simply not as good without that rockin’ P-B.

Peanut butter and banana are lovers that should not be separated. Don’t mess.

And if you are reading my mind (or maybe I’m reading yours?) you’ll know that this begs for a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. You guys. I don’t know why but just YES.

And now I’d like to officially welcome you to the World of Weirdly Delicious Recipes That Qualify as Both Breakfast and Dessert.

I like.

ONE LAST THING. This ice cream requires a heavy duty blender. Garage sale freebies are probably a no-go for this recipe (and yes, I do have one of those, too). I always have the best results with my Blendtec Designer Series Blender. If you’re in the market for a new grown up blender, this has your name all over it.

Description

Ingredients

3 large, ripe bananas

3 tablespoons natural peanut butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

a super teeny-tiny dash of cinnamon

sea salt to taste

roasted peanuts for topping

Instructions

Cut the bananas into small chunks and freeze until solid, at least 1-2 hours. Transfer the bananas to a very strong blender and blend until smooth and creamy. This will take a few minutes and may require periodic pauses and adjustments. It’s very loud and intense since the bananas are frozen, similar to adding ice cubes to a blender. Within a few minutes, you should be seeing a thick, creamy ice-creamy mixture in the blender.

Add the peanut butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sea salt, and anything else you might like in there. Pulse the blender quickly to stir the ingredients all together and when everything is mixed, serve immediately. Top with additional peanut butter and crushed roasted peanuts.

Notes

You can put this back in the freezer to eat part of it later, but the consistency loses some of its wonderful velvety-ness when you re-freeze it, so just eat the whole thing now. I command it. If you absolutely must exercise self control and save the rest for later, running it through the blender again before serving might help.

135 Comments

Stephanie

Hi, I was reading your article about Food Processors and it brought me to this amazing recipe. Did you use a food processor for this or a regular blender? I’m trying to decide if I should get a food processor. Although, I need a new blender. Mine is almost on its last leg. Any recommendations?

I enjoyed reading this article almost as much as the AMAZING non-icecream, hilarious! Hot tip I did not guess from the video: don’t freeze the bananas whole. I ended up having to shave the banana skin off with a knife like you’d sharpen a pencil, and lost some delicious creamy banana in the process. Was still delicious though!

This was a must try for me. I do not have a blender or food processor, so I used my hand mixer. It worked fine and I put the ice cream between Graham Crackers and refroze for just a bit. Very delicious. Thank you, ripe bananns will never go to waste.

This was delicious! The first time but all I had on hand was powdered pb, it was an alright substitute in a pinch. The second time I had all of the ingredients and it was delicious! I found it easier to blend the second time I made it because I chopped the frozen banana up really small before putting in it the blender.
Thanks for the recipe!! It’s nice to have yummy options that don’t have a bunch of added sugar.